Financial Payment Method and Payment System Using Mobile Device

This application is Continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/746,186 filed on Jun. 18, 2024, which is a Continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/454,179 filed on Nov. 9, 2021, which is a Continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/349,503 filed on May 13, 2019, which is a U.S. national phase application, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 371, of PCT/KR2017/012829, filed Nov. 14, 2017, designating the United States, which claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2016-0151016, filed Nov. 14, 2016. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/454,179 claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2020-0148635, filed on Nov. 9, 2020. The entire contents of the aforementioned patent applications are incorporated herein by this reference.

The present disclosure relates to a financial payment method and payment system using a mobile device, and more particularly, to a method and system for making a payment by mutually verifying biometric information and financial information in two mobile devices.

The present disclosure also relates to an identity authentication system using biometric information of a user.

A payment system based on fingerprint recognition was first introduced to private businesses in the U.S. in 2007. However, the payment system has limitations in protecting personal information in that biometric information of individuals are stored in a specific device of a third party or accessible through a network exposed to the risk of hacking, which is why the payment system is not widely used now. Moreover, the fingerprint recognition-based payment system imposes a cost constraint on offline affiliate members because every offline affiliate member should be provided with an expensive fingerprint sensor for fingerprint recognition. In 2007, businesses using the fingerprint recognition-based payment system actually declared bankruptcy because of financial deficit caused by the purchase of a 2 to 3 million-dollar payment POS device.

Recently, the Japanese government has attempted to adopt other fingerprint recognition-based payment systems. If a visitor to Japan puts two fingers on a fingerprint reader and inputs credit card information in an airport, the visitor may pay simply through fingerprint recognition in fingerprint recognition-enabled stores or hotels. For this purpose, the Japanese government announced that fingerprint recognition-based payment infrastructure would be deployed all over the nation by 2020 when the Olympics would be held in Tokyo. Although the attempt to deploy the fingerprint recognition-based payment infrastructure at the government level is highly likely to lead to wide use of the fingerprint recognition-based system, the fingerprint recognition-based system also has the same limitations as that in the U.S. due to the cost and insufficient protection of personal information.

Various electronic devices provide a variety of functions using users' biometric information. For example, a mobile electronic device allows its use by recognizing a user's face or iris. Also, a gate security system opens a gate by recognizing a user's fingerprint.

Various services provided using users' biometric information offer convenience to the users. However, there is a security problem which may cause fatal damage to the users when the users' biometric information is hacked or opened to the public. Accordingly, there are limitations in providing various functions.

Recently, to solve the security problem of biometric information leakage, research is under way on a technology for storing biometric information of a user in a mobile electronic device that the user possesses instead of a specific server.

Meanwhile, to perform identity authentication not through a specific server which uses a fixed Internet protocol (IP) address but through a mobile electronic device that a user possesses, it is necessary to manually input a code for identifying the mobile electronic device of the user for identity authentication every time, which is troublesome. For example, as an identification code, a mobile phone number, a personal identification number (PIN), or the like for identifying a mobile electronic device may be used.

According to embodiments, a financial payment may be made without a physical card by means of a mobile device irrespective of time and place. Further, without the need for deploying additional infrastructure, a financial payment may be made using mobile devices which have been proliferated and are carried by a multitude of users.

Personal information of an individual such as a resident registration number, a fingerprint, and the like, and financial information of the individual such as a card number, a card password, and the like are stored in a mobile device carried by the individual. When the individual makes a financial payment, the personal information and financial information are verified in the mobile device. Therefore, the individual may make a safe financial payment without exposure of the personal information and the financial information.

In one aspect, the present disclosure provides a method of authenticating a financial payment at a first mobile device of a seller. The method comprises: sensing, by a sensor provided in the first mobile device, one or more pieces of biometric information of a purchaser; transmitting, by the first mobile device, the sensed biometric information to a second mobile device that is identified by the purchaser in a predetermined method; receiving, by the first mobile device, information from the second mobile device, wherein the information indicates whether the biometric information that is transmitted by the first mobile device matches biometric information of the purchaser that is pre-stored in the second mobile device; and authenticating, by the first mobile device, a content of the financial payment, when the biometric information that is transmitted by the first mobile device matches the biometric information that is pre-stored in the second mobile device.

In an embodiment, the biometric information may include one or more of fingerprint information, iris information, vein information, electrocardiogram information, and voice information.

In an embodiment, the authentication of the content of the financial payment may further comprise processing the payment in a payment method that is preset in the second mobile device. The preset payment method may comprise using a substitute key that corresponds to a password of a first payment means selected by the purchaser from among one or more payment means. The substitute key may be preset by the purchaser to correspond to a predetermined input key of each digit of the password, from among a set of input keys displayed on the first mobile device. The first payment means may be selected adaptively based on the payment content, from among preset one or more payment methods.

In one embodiment, the transmission of the sensed biometric information may comprise encrypting the sensed biometric information in a predetermined encryption method and transmitting the encrypted biometric information or converting the sensed biometric information to a file in a predetermined format and transmitting the file. The predetermined encryption method may be RC4, OTPad, DES, TDES, AES, IDEA, Dffie-Hellman, DSA, Elgamal, RSA, ECC, SHA, MD5, HAVAL, HMAC, or CBC-MAC. The file in the predetermined format may be an image file, a video file, or a voice file. The format of the file may be determined adaptively based on the sensed biometric information.

In another aspect, a method of performing a financial payment at a second mobile device identified by a purchaser is provided. The method comprises: receiving, by the second mobile device, biometric information of the purchaser from a first mobile device of a seller; verifying, by the second mobile device, whether the biometric information that is received from the first mobile device matches biometric information of the purchaser that is pre-stored in the second mobile device; receiving, by the second mobile device, authenticated payment content from the first mobile device, when the biometric information that is received from the first mobile device matches the biometric information of the purchaser that is pre-stored in the second mobile device; and performing, by the second mobile device, a payment in a payment method that is predetermined with regard to the payment content.

In an embodiment, the method may further comprise receiving one or more pieces of biometric information and one or more payment methods from the purchaser.

In an embodiment, the performing the payment may comprise using a substitute key that corresponds to a password of a first payment means selected by the purchaser. The substitute key may correspond to each digit of the password that is to be input by a user from a combination of input keys displayed on the first mobile device.

In an embodiment, in case of each of the one more payment methods, the first payment means may be set to be a discount for a payment amount, point accumulation, or a statement balance in an order determined by a preset priority. The priority may be reflected adaptively in the payment content.

In another aspect, a computing device including at least one processor, implemented at least temporarily by the at least one processor is provided. The computing device comprises: a sensor unit configured to sense one or more pieces of biometric information of a purchaser; a communication unit configured to transmit the sensed biometric information to a second mobile device that is identified by the purchaser in a predetermined method, and to receive information from the second mobile device in response to the transmission, wherein the information indicates whether the biometric information that is transmitted by the communication unit matches biometric information of the purchaser that is pre-stored in the second mobile device; and a computation unit configured to authenticate payment content, when the biometric information that is transmitted by the communication unit matches the biometric information that is pre-stored in the second mobile device.

In another aspect, a program stored in a computer-readable recording medium, for causing a computing device to perform a financial payment based on biometric information and financial information of a purchaser is provided. The program comprises: an instruction set for receiving, at a first mobile device of a seller, biometric information of the purchaser; an instruction set for verifying whether the biometric information that is received from the first mobile device matches biometric information of the purchaser that is pre-stored in the computing device; and an instruction set for, when the received biometric information matches the pre-stored biometric information, receiving authenticated payment content from the first mobile device, and performing the payment using a substitute key that is received from the purchaser and corresponds to a password of a first payment means that is selected by the purchaser for each of one or more payment methods.

The present disclosure is directed to providing an identity authentication system which allows non-face-to-face and contactless authentication and does not require the manual input of an identification code for identity authentication every time.

The present disclosure is also directed to providing an identity authentication system with an improved security level.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an identity authentication system including an identity authentication device in which first data including biometric information of a user is stored, an identity authentication request device configured to generate second data by sensing a body part of the user, and a server configured to receive the second data and select personal information of a user corresponding to the second data among pieces of pre-stored personal information of a plurality of users through machine learning of the second data.

The identity authentication request device may transmit the second data to the identity authentication device which is identified on the basis of the personal information of the user received from the server, and the identity authentication device may determine whether the first data corresponds to the second data and transmit authentication data to the identity authentication request device as a result of the determination.

When the authentication data is not received from the identified identity authentication device within a preset period, the identity authentication request device may output an identification failure message and transmit a retraining command to the server.

The identity authentication request device may perform a preset function when the authentication data includes the result representing that the first data corresponds to the second data and may output an authentication failure message when the authentication data includes the result representing that the first data does not correspond to the second data.

The first data may include face information of the user, and the second data may include an image of the user's face.

The machine learning may use at least one of a Haar-like algorithm and a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm.

The server may transmit the personal information to the identity authentication request device and then permanently delete the second data used for the machine learning.

The server may cumulatively store results of the machine learning as cumulative data.

The personal information may include a mobile phone number for identifying the identity authentication device.

The identity authentication device may include: a wireless communication circuit configured to receive the second data from the identity authentication request device, determine whether the first data corresponds to the second data, and transmit a result of the determination to the identity authentication request device; at least one processor electrically connected to the wireless communication circuit; and a memory electrically connected to the at least one processor and configured to store the first data.

The identity authentication device may further include a camera module or a sensor module, the at least one processor may acquire the first data on the basis of data obtained by sensing the user's body through the camera module or the sensor module, and the memory may store the first data in a secure region.

The identity authentication request device may include a sensor module, a camera module, a wireless communication circuit, and at least one processor electrically connected to the sensor module, the camera module, and the wireless communication circuit, the at least one processor may acquire the second data obtained by sensing the user's body through the sensor module or the camera module, the wireless communication circuit may transmit the second data to the identity authentication device, and the at least one processor may perform a predetermined function on the basis of the authentication data received from the identity authentication device through the wireless communication circuit.

The at least one processor may transmit the second data to the identity authentication device and then permanently delete the second data.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an identity authentication system including a plurality of identity authentication devices in which first data including biometric information of a user is stored in a distributed manner, an identity authentication request device configured to generate second data by sensing biometric information of the user, and a server configured to receive the second data and select personal information of the user corresponding to the second data among pieces of pre-stored personal information of a plurality of users through machine learning of the second data.

The identity authentication request device may transmit the second data to the plurality of identity authentication devices which are identified on the basis of the personal information of the user received from the server.

The plurality of identity authentication devices may determine whether the first data corresponds to the second data through mutual information exchange and transmit authentication data to the identity authentication request device as a result of the determination.

When the authentication data is not received from the plurality of identified identity authentication devices within a preset period, the identity authentication request device may output an identification failure message and transmit a retraining command to the server.

The identity authentication request device may perform a preset function when the authentication data includes the result representing that the first data corresponds to the second data and may output an authentication failure message when the authentication data includes the result representing that the first data does not correspond to the second data.

The first data may include face information of the user, and the second data may include an image of the user's face.

The machine learning may use at least one of a Haar-like algorithm and a CNN algorithm.

The server may transmit the authentication data to the identity authentication request device and then permanently delete the second data used for the machine learning.

The server may cumulatively store results of the machine learning as cumulative data.

The personal information of the user may include mobile phone numbers for identifying each of the plurality of identity authentication devices.

According to the embodiments, even when a financial payment is made using biometric information of an individual, which has strict personal information protection requirements, there is no risk of exposing the biometric information to any devices other than a mobile device of the individual.

Due to the use of widely available mobile devices, both of an individual as a consumer and a business provider as a supplier may make a financial payment with low cost, using biometric information.

A financial payment may proceed in any of various user-selected payment methods, and due to use of a substitute key that corresponds to a password of a financial payment means, exposure of the password of a user to a mobile device of an affiliate member may be prevented.

Embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. However, these embodiments do not limit the scope of the disclosure. In each drawing, like reference numerals denote the same components.